Followers

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Is there a stronger word than irony?

I was talking to someone yesterday afternoon, someone who had a lot of teabaggerist rage against the Obamachine. He was a veteran, as am I; he remembers when the USofA was a "REAL" country and he hates the way money is wasted by the idiots in Washington and how we can't just "walk into any country with our heads held high" (because we can't kick everybody's ass, all the time?). It was not a lot of fun to listen to as it was a.) somewhat unhinged ranting and b.) devoid of any substantive argument. Nothing but Rushboist talking points and credulous boobery of a very low order. I try to be polite in these situations--particularly when I'm standing in someone's dooryard trying to get a piece of information. However, when I have some snopesian derelict, living in a singlewide that, quite honestly, is NOT suitable for human habitation--unless, perhaps, the resident's last home was one of the Rio Favellas--telling me that my country has "lost its way", the Iron-O-Master just gets fuckin' smoked, knowudimean? It is a fact of life that each and every generation sees that preceding it as too dumb to grasp the obvious and the one succeeding it as lazy, shiftless, disrespectful and incapable of changing those qualities in themselves. I certainly have to cop to some of those thoughts when I look at the world around me but WTF? Barack Obama, warts and all--and he seems to have a new one every day--is, after 2-1/2 years in office looking like a genuine leader. I disagree with many of the things he's done and am quite pissed off about a number of things I wish he WOULD do and that he hasn't. The notion, however that the country is in a death spiral because of his mistakes/crimes against teabagmanity or any of the other bullshit that I hear from the deliberately uneducated fools or, frankly, flat out lying bastards who simply hate that they didn't win--and a BLACK man did, is just that, bullshit. I proposed, in a moment of lighthearted cynicism (now THAT'S an oxymoron) some years back, that we should have a third party. That party, the "Thin The Herd Party" would be made up of really, truly, serious, dedicated, no nonsense, rock ribbed pragmatarians--like me--who would adopt as their one and only campaign plank, the following: "That each of us should--to the desired and necessary end of providing for a civil, educated, intelligent and reasoned discourse between genuinely committed and concerned individuals on the MERITS of prospective policy, procedures, appointed officials and politicians to both represent and legislate in we, the peoples' best interest--strive to eradicate, at a rate of one per party member, per week, those useless idiots who clog up the machinery of polity and impede a just and hardworking populace from achieving true freedom, fraternity and eqaulity." As you might imagine, this platform would be opposed--by those same useless bastards that we seek to extirpate throughout their range. I knew that the process would be quite painful for some of us, pitting brother against brother, sons against fathers, daughters against mothers, cousins agains...well, you get the picture. I must admit however that I was a bit unnerved when the friend to whom I suggested my brilliant plan, looked at me and said, "What if you're someone else's USELESS bastard.". So, okay, it needs work....